1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mounting adapter which is interposed between an accessory device and a portable electronic device to integrate the two.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, portable type electronic devices such as smartphones and tablet type computers are becoming widespread. Some of these conventional portable type electronic devices are configured by incorporating a camera unit including, for example, an optical system lens and an image pickup device and provided with an image pickup function for picking up a still image or a movie.
Such conventional portable type electronic devices are generally configured to be small-sized and light-weighted so as to be carried along by users all the time and available outdoors or at remote locations if necessary as appropriate. The users of such portable type electronic devices carry along their devices all the time or often do not carry along, for example, conventional common image pickup apparatuses (hereinafter simply abbreviated as “cameras”) such as cameras. Even in such cases, the users use the image pickup function of the camera unit incorporated in the above-described portable type electronic devices, and can thereby pick up still images or movies and acquire desired images easily and at any time in recent years.
However, since the camera units incorporated in such portable type electronic devices are of accessory functions of the electronic devices, image pickup performance thereof is undeniably inferior to that of normal cameras or the like.
Thus, conventionally, various proposals have been presented and have been put to practical use regarding a variety of accessory devices provided with functions for assisting an image pickup function or an image browsing function among functions provided for such portable type electronic devices, or functions for substituting those functions.
Examples of accessory devices used by being attached to conventional portable type electronic devices include an interchangeable lens unit with an image pickup device with unitized high performance image pickup device and image pickup lens applicable to common cameras or the like, and an intermediate barrel with an image pickup device configured to be mountable with an interchangeable lens barrel provided for conventional common cameras with interchangeable lenses and provided with a high performance image pickup device. These accessory devices function as accessory devices capable of substituting image pickup functions or the like of corresponding portable type electronic devices.
In addition, examples of accessory devices used by being attached to conventional portable type electronic devices include an accessory device for assisting, when a portable type electronic device is used to display images and used as an image browsing display apparatus, and when the portable type electronic device is placed on a plane such as a table, an image browsing function such as a support mount to stabilize and make self-sustaining the display screen at a desired angle, an auxiliary light emission unit that causes illuminating light during image pickup to be emitted as auxiliary light, an accessory device for assisting an illumination apparatus or the like in image pickup, and other various devices.
Examples of possible modes of attaching such various accessory devices to a portable type electronic device include one that interposes a mounting adapter between each accessory device and the portable type electronic device.
For example, a mounting adapter disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 5541430 is provided with a connection section that connects and fixes an accessory device using means such as bayonet coupling, a mounting arm section that is urged in a tightening direction, and a fixed arm section placed opposite to this mounting arm section, an optional portable type electronic device is disposed so as to be interposed between the above-described two arm sections with the accessory device being attached to the connection section so that the mounting adapter is interposed between the accessory device and the portable type electronic device to integrate the two.
In general, when performing an operation of attaching an accessory device to a conventional portable type electronic device, the user holds the portable type electronic device by one hand and holds the accessory device by the other hand to attach the accessory device.